Hamilton in Prime Position in Styria after topping Final Practice at the Red Bull Ring

Max Verstappen couldn’t complete a hat-trick of fastest times, with Lewis Hamilton topping the final practice session of the Styrian Grand Prix. 

Yet again, the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team duo of Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas seemed to be on the back foot compared to Red Bull Racing, but the team was able to pull a couple of rapid laps out to beat their rivals. 

In the battle on top, Hamilton and Bottas came first and third respectively, with the duo being sandwiched by Verstappen in third. Sergio Pérez wasn’t too far behind in fourth. 

Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda seem to be on fine form. Pierre Gasly has been one of the standout drivers of the year and his pace is getting stronger. He was fifth fastest with his team-mate Yuki Tsunoda following just behind him in sixth.

Scuderia Ferrari will be hoping to put the disaster of Paul Ricard behind them after walking away from the French Grand Prix with no points. However, the Red Bull Ring hasn’t been kind to them, with the duo of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz Jr. struggling to have the pace of those in front. Leclerc finished seventh with Sainz Jr. in thirteenth. 

Fernando Alonso was the fastest in the battle at Alpine F1 Team. He finished eighth with team-mate Esteban Ocon down in twelfth. The Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One Team pairing of Lance Stroll and Sebastian Vettel finished off the top ten finishing ninth and tenth respectively.

The Red Bull Ring has been a track that Antonio Giovinazzi has consistently done well at. He was eleventh fastest with Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN team-mate Kimi Räikkönen down in fifteenth.

George Russell finished in fourteenth. He’ll be hoping that he can get into Q2 again and his pace has surely shown he can. Williams Racing team-mate Nicholas Latifi was eighteenth. 

McLaren F1 Team had a poor session. Daniel Ricciardo couldn’t repeat his heroics of the second session on Friday, where he finished second. His fastest time saw him finishing low down the grid in seventeenth. Lando Norris did set a time which saw him go fifth fastest. However, like most drivers on the grid, he had his time taken away for exceeding track limits. He finished nineteenth.

Mick Schumacher finished sixteenth and Nikita Mazepin completed the grid, finishing the session in twentieth. The practice wasn’t kind to him, with Mazepin taking a spin at Turn 1 during a flying lap. 

Red Bull Ring Free Practice 3 Result